The very idea of silence, an absence of sound or communication, is inherently unstable. Silence functions as a blank signifier that can be invested with meaning at will—or at whim. It can thus be used as a tool of oppression and resistance, agreement and disapproval, deep engagement and withdrawal. One wonders, however, whether contemporary society, with its loud technology and louder forms of media, is becoming increasingly befuddled by instances of silence. For example, Joel and Ethan Coens' No Country for Old Men (2007) uses an absence of soundtrack to emphasize the bleakness and moral uncertainty of the contemporary American West: after screenings, the public left the theatres perturbed in part because the film did not offer sound cues that would help viewers digest the plot. The proliferation of cellular phones and blackberry devices, as well as of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, testifies to the fact that silence is a persona non grata in an age of immediate vocalization of personal experience. And yet, perhaps because of this monopoly of noise and narration, silence has become fetishized and idealized as a marker of transcendence and self-development, whether in the form of meditation, private reading, isolation tanks, or solitary hikes.

These are just some of the topics that will be explored in the third issue of Pivot, entitled The Rest Is Silence. We invite participants from across disciplinary borders to submit papers that engage with any aspect of this highly mobile field of inquiry.

Possible topics could be inspired by, but should not be limited to, the following thematic concerns:

Silence in film and visual arts Dramatic silence/pause Comedy and silence Politics of exclusion and erasure in literary canons Loud silences "Digital hum" – replacement of human speech by machines Vows of silence The role of silence in religions, spirituality and memorial/monument/memory Reading aloud and reading quietly Disability studies Disciplining through silence – seen but not heard Politics of interrogation Muting and censorship Gags and muzzles